Thursday, August 2, 2007

First off, Eduardo Da Silva has been granted his work permit to play for Arsenal this season! I was kind of holding my breath hoping that it would be given to him but now it has so he's all set for the start of the new season. Arsene Wenger had said that it would be a close call because he has not played in 75% of Croatia's matches in the past year. Hopefully now that he's been given the permit we'll get to see more of him in the preseason and maybe even in the opener vs Fulham.

Billy Gallas really wants the captain's armband for the new season. He says he is pleased to be named as one of the three who could be named captain and would not turn it down if he was offered the armband. He says now that he's 30 he's ready for more responsibility.

"I am 30 years old and I want to have more responsibilities both for my club and for the national team," he told L'Equipe.

"I am attracted to the idea of giving advice to the youngsters, to leading a group.

"If they chose me to become the captain, I would not say no.

"On the contrary, it would make me very proud to wear the captain's armband for Arsenal."

Gallas in my opinion should not be captain because he complains too much and talks badly about the team more than he speaks well of them. He made further news by saying that we need to stop playing "lovely football." Well Bill, you might not have noticed, but we've been playing like this for quite a while now. It's worked for us before and it isn't going to stop just because you want it to.

Robin Van Persie then countered what Gallas said by saying this:"There are only a few teams in Europe that play the way that Arsenal play. I'll always go for a team where I would earn less money but who play fantastic football rather than to a team where you can earn lots of money, win every week 1-0 or 2-0, but who play defensively.

"I don't like to run after people all game long. I like it when they have to run after me. That is the way I see football and that is the way I want to play it."

That's about it for the day. Match against Lazio today, hopefully we'll do well.